PhD Defence Amée Fleur Wolters

Keywords: MRI, Parkinson’s disease, biomarker, ultra-high field MRI
 

"Visualizing Parkinson’s disease brain signatures using advanced MRI techniques"

This thesis contributes to our knowledge of how MRI can be used to identify markers for Parkinson's disease. The research in this thesis demonstrates that changes in certain parts of the brain, like the white matter and default mode network, play a crucial role in causing cognitive issues in individuals with Parkinson's. Additionally, the use of advanced MRI technology known as ultra-high field MRI is explored. This technology allows us to examine small brain regions that are difficult to detect on standard MRI scans. The thesis includes a description of a new study protocol using ultra-high field MRI, which enables us to investigate Parkinson's disease in more depth over a longer period of time. It is expected that this study will help provide answers to many more research questions regarding the use of MRI in Parkinson's disease in the near future. It was already shown that there is potential for using specific brainstem regions to differentiate between Parkinson's patients and healthy individuals.

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